Real Salt Lake: Rio Tinto has become a fortress

SANDY — Making Rio Tinto Stadium a fortress became a primary goal for Jason Kreis from the moment the stadium opened up for play in 2008.

Kreis wanted to transform it into a place where a visiting team — no matter who it was or where it came from — would not return from Utah boasting a new mark in the victory column.

Evidence of his success in those efforts could be seen firsthand in a 1-0 victory for RSL over the New York Red Bulls on Saturday night.

The win extended the club's home unbeaten streak to 22 games and tied an MLS record set by the Columbus Crew from 2008 to 2009. A win or draw over Chicago in the team's next home game on September 18th will allow Real to establish a new unbeaten mark in the league record books.

"It is important to us," Kreis said. "We take a lot of pride in this building, as I've said before. It's more than a building for us because a lot of us have been here since the place opened up. So it feels a little bit more like a home, if you will."

Protecting that home has not always been an easy task. RSL has needed a fair share of lucky bounces, timely goals and fortunate results to keep its streak of dominance going.

Such good fortune is best illustrated by how things played out in the season opener against Seattle. A last-second goal on a header from Alvaro Saborio was what it took to help Salt Lake force a 2-2 draw with the Sounders and keep that unbeaten streak alive beyond April.

Real last lost at home to the Kansas City Wizards 2-0 in May of last season.

Confidence has played a big role in helping make RSL into the force it has become on its home grass.

"We got a team that really believes and we feel like we deserve to win every game at home," midfielder Kyle Beckerman said. "It's like a necessity for us. And we start to believe things are going to go for us.

"So even when we're down, and it's getting late in the game, we still believe that the next chance we get we're going to tie this game up."

RSL had a game on Saturday where it never needed worry about rallying. Salt Lake scored the game's only goal in the 4th minute when Fabian Espindola outran New York defender Tim Ream for a through ball from Beckerman and slotted it around the right side of onrushing goalkeeper Greg Sutton.

While the Red Bulls tallied six shots on goal — just one less than RSL — each one came up short after some impressive defensive plays.

The biggest defensive highlight came courtesy of Andy Williams in the 33rd minute when the veteran midfielder sniffed out a header by Juan Pablo Angel off a corner kick and stopped the ball with his feet at the line to save a potential equalizing goal.

It helped set a strong defensive tone that helped Nick Rimando claim his 11th clean sheet of the season.